I asked an LLM to help me find the standard German equivalent for "hooche Leit", and it said "hohe Leute" 'high people' (here in the sense of 'fancy people'), which of course doesn't have the same connotation, but that's the etymological sense.

I'm frequently struck by the immense amount of misdirected and wasted human energy and accomplishment because of religion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zenr4iGTykU